A blog for genealogists and historians tracing the Robert Newton Turpin family into the past or the present and wanting to share information.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

James R. Carter had ties to Lancaster County, Nebraska

I love the serendipity of genealogical research, especially
when someone points out something right under your nose that you were not
looking for and not expecting. Not quite
like winning the lottery but it’s still fun!

I got one of those this week.

Portrait
and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska published 1888

I’ve used the Portrait
and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska many times. My great, great grandfather Casper Martin (another branch of the family) is
in there along with other shirt-tail relatives. But an anonymous contributor commented on my
January blog entry “Cousins Die in Camp
at Cape Girardeau in 1861” about James R. Carter (cousin of Thomas B. Turpin) and
pointed to this Lancaster County history book as the source of more information
on James Carter’s family. Wow!

The history was published in 1888 and has an entry for Joseph Epps, step-brother to James R. Carter. The biography states that John and
Charlotte Epps’ family consisted of Charlotte’s four children from her marriage to
George Carter: John, Riley, Eliza, and William Carter; and Christopher, Rachel, Agnes, Joseph, Mary,
and Amanda who were the children of John and Charlotte.

For anyone who may be researching that particular branch of
the family, Anonymous adds:

It mentions Charlotte EVANS CARTER EPPS and at
the time of writing was living in Mitchell, South Dakota ... William Elijah Carter's daughter Minnie Louise was married three times, [to] John H.
Raner and had 6 children, William Frederick Holkan (widower with 5 children), and Louis Frederick Karsten in Nebraska. She died sometime after 1950. Lou was
my great-great-uncle.

The Portrait and Biographical Album of Lancaster County,
Nebraska is a digitized book and the article on the Epps family can be found at:

10 comments:

BINGO! Looking at the document itself, it identifies E.A.D.J. Carter as ELIZA! Even more amazing is seeing Charlotte identified as living in Mitchell, Dakota Territory, after John Epps described himself as widowed in the 1870 census! Good! New territory for hunting!

Found a message from a Crouch family genealogist who was looking for the family of Elizabeth Carter, born on the date shown in Indiana, daughter of George Carter. I think that's about enough to tentatively pencil her in as our missing "Eliza." I noticed her firstborn son was named Riley, which is the nickname/middle name of her brother James Riley, who died in 1861 in the Army in Missouri. Also, eldest brother John lived, worked and is buried in Burlington in Coffey County.

Now, I've seen a listing showing a John Anderson married a Charlotte (Mrs.) Epps in Greene, Iowa. No date or further details. And there's a Charlotte Anderson in Fremont County in the 1880s, according to the rolls. So.... The hunt continues...

Paul, do you have a postable synopsis of the long, sordid story? It would be helpful if we posted it or at least linked to it -- in case any researchers would be interested! A good and complicated family tale usually is a great case study for others!

Sunday, July 24, 1881, just before twelve O’clock, the neighborhood of East Fifth and Scott streets was the scene of a merciless murder. F.W. George, a man who has been employed for some time past in this city as engineer at different places, shot John Epps, a Spaniard or Mexican, who pretended to be a doctor, through the heart, causing almost instant death. Some trouble arose between them relative to a young woman named Lottie Morton, whom George claims, was by her parents placed under his protection, but whom Epps induced to submit to an abortion at his hands. They met in front of the house where the girl was staying, the place being Mrs. Bunce's, on Fifth st. between Allen and Scott when George asked Epps where he was going. The reply was that he was going to see the girl, when George drew a large revolver, 32 calibre, and shot at Epps, the ball taking effect in the arm. He turned to run away, when George followed up, and shot him in the back. Epps preceded a few feet and fell dead. When the coroner arrived he took charge of the body and had it taken to the boarding house of Mrs. Moler, 311 East Second st., where Epps had boarded, when Drs. Patchin and Ericson made an examination of it. The coroner's jury, which was impaneled before the body was removed, consisted of Jackson Wisehart, Joseph Brewer and H. E. Teachout. After taking the necessary testimony they returned a verdict of murder, and that the act was done feloniously.George, the murderer, started to run away after doing the shooting, but was soon caught by officers Hanger and Kilboom and he gave up without resistance. He is a large heavy-set man, and is about 40 years of age. He is a married man and has a family. He has been doing nothing, being troubled by epilepsy, for which Dr. Epps had been treating him. The police records show that George has an unfavorable character for disturbing the public quite, assault and battery, and intoxication.<>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Taken from *July 30, 1881 "Plain Talk", Des Moines, Iowa~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, the "State vs George" appeal proceedings, part of "The Northwest Reporter," Page 300, published in 1884, is available free from Google Play and other web sources. It details the crime and some of what had gone on before. John Epps had started portraying himself as a doctor, and called himself that. I know that his wounds from the Civil War were such that he was unable to pursue farming and opened a barber shop. This absconding to Des Moines and creating a more grandiose character for himself may have been one thing to precipitate Charlotte's apparent leaving him, even though he described himself as a widower. Since she was in Mitchell, Dakota, in 1888 or so -- and I'm still trying to research that, nothing yet -- I think the reports of her demise were premature... I think John Epps would find a whole battery of Veteran's Administration help available nowadays, as I think he was a classic case of PTSD!

Thank you Paul! I did not realize that Google had some of the Northwestern Reporters online and free. For anyone who would like to check this out, it's "The Northwestern Reporter, Volume 18, Containing All the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and Dakota" published St. Paul, January 1884 by West Publishing Company; pages 298-302. I'll post a screen shot of the crime description.